Protection of the shoreline, whether it be along the ocean, a bay or sound, an estuary, a lake or other sizeable body of water, is a problem which has faced mankind for eons. Wave action against a shoreline can be a powerful destructive force. Combined tidal and wave action can increase the area of potential attack. Storms produce exaggerated and frequently unpredictable effects. Currents along shorelines can transport almost unbelievable amounts of sand or sediment from one point to another. With the apparently universal desire of people to erect buildings as close as possible to the water, shoreline erosion has become an extremely expensive proposition. In many cases, it is considered that the activity of builders has itself contributed to attack on the shoreline.
Many attempts have been made to provide local protection of the shoreline including permanent breakwaters, groins, rip-rap deposits, sandbags, concrete structures of various kinds, rubber tires, "longard" tubes and others. Permanent breakwaters have been successful but are so expensive that they can only be employed where governmental interests in protecting commercial harbors and the like can be brought to bear so that the necessary financing can be made available. Groins have been employed to obtain local protection with some success, but their use has resulted in increased erosive attack on adjacent properties due, inter alia, to diversion of the littoral current. Other devices have had only limited success. For example, in one test, installation on a bay communicating with the Gulf of Mexico, only the longard tube, which is made by filling a woven textile fiber back with pumped-in sand slurry, was effective in affording protection to the beach. Unfortunately, such devices are short-lived and susceptible to vandalism.
Improved and relatively inexpensive devices of improved longevity are still needed.